Peace on Earth

Here we are. The advent of another Holiday Season. The local news is rife with murders. Shootings. Domestic violence. Child abuse. The national news is full of denial of health care for the heroes of 9/11. Denial of an extension of unemployment benefits. Extensions of tax breaks for the richest 1% of Americans. The name calling, blame calling, dysfunction of a sytem that is stalled and unwieldly and unworkable. We can't even be civil across party lines. How can we expect the international community to work things out if the microcosim in our lives - familial, local, city-wide, state-wide, etc., does not work? Talk is good, and cheap. But all the talk in the world is not going to result in peace on earth unless we can discuss issues on all levels in a civil manner. We must care about what "the other side" is saying, because if we cannot speak and listen in a rational way, our local, city, state, national, and international issues will contiue to fester and atrophy. And we will search in vain for Peace on Earth.